Age of Dragons
by Radioactive-man
Summary: Louise was gone from Halkegenia for eight long years. When she returned, she was hoping to live out her life in peace. But that peace would be short lived, as a horror unfamiliar to everyone but her looms over the unsuspecting world. The First Darkspawn Blight is coming to Halkegenia and the duty of stopping it falls onto the tiny shoulders of a small pink haired girl.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere was... just an ordinary girl, Kirche had decided upon her first encounter with said individual. She was really small, had pink hair and piercing equally pink eyes, but other than that there was nothing outstanding or interesting about her.

She wasn't very social, rarely spoke to anybody and seemed absorbed in her own little world. Kirche had initially tried to form some sort of rivalry bordering on friendship with the pinkette, since their families shared a lot of history with each other, but all her attempts to goad the smaller girl into a conversation or an argument were met with Louise just tilting her head to the side in confusion at best and a roll of eyes at worst. It wasn't until their second year together at the Tristain academy of magic that Kirche found out why. Apparently Louise went missing when she was about six years old and reappeared just a year before entering the academy, which was the only interesting thing about the girl as far as Kirche was concerned.

Even the possible tale of any adventures or kidnappings she might have experienced turned out to be just a fantasy. After asking Louise about her disappearance she just shrugged and said that she got lost quite badly one time and quite literally fell on her head when she stumbled, losing her memory in the process. She ended up growing up among commoners and only when her gift of magic revealed itself did her memories return. Her family had been searching for her of course, but had no success, since the family she grew up with had left for Albion shortly after Louise joined them.

That also explained her accent which sounded distinctly like a person who grew up on the southernmost side of the floating nation. It also fit with her physique and mannerisms. Though small of stature, Louise was quite fit and fairly well muscled, hinting at hard manual labour at some point in her past, Kirche observed once, when they happened to take a bath at the same time. The pinkette was by no means a monstrously muscled woman, such as some of the warriors Kirche had seen in Germania, but the redhead would not attempt to pick a physical fight with the girl if she could help it.

Her magic... was pretty bad. Which too, was to be expected of someone who grew up a commoner. She only ever seemed to scrape by on the important practical tests and had significant trouble with the theory as well. Even the way she dressed screamed ordinary. She wore dark leather boots which reached up to just below her knees, her school uniform and her hair, her most appealing feature in Kirche's humble opinion, was cut to just above shoulder length and usually set into a somewhat sloppily bound ponytail. Thus, during their second year at the academy Kirche had just accepted her as one of her fellow classmates whom she probably wouldn't hear much from once they finished their education.

It didn't cross Kirche's mind that the appearance of being an ordinary girl with a somewhat interesting background was a little too perfect. And even in her wildest fantasies she could not have imagined the truth about what really happened in the eight years of Louise's disappearance. And yet, the truth would become undeniable to her and everyone else much sooner and in a way that most certainly none of them would have liked.

* * *

Louise was a spoiled little six year old. Her mother was strict but her father took every opportunity to spoil his youngest daughter. Any wish she had, she just had to tell him and it would be fulfilled, as long as it wasn't anything too outrageous. Even her playmates were of the highest noble calibre, going so far as to include the crown princess of Tristain herself. It should not come as a surprise then, that when the little girl encountered her mother's familiar, the mighty and magnificent manticore, Louise had immediately asked her father to procure her a familiar of her own. He had just laughed and told her that she was still too young to even attempt magic, let alone summon a familiar.

He should have known that his youngest would not be satisfied by an answer such as this. He also should have kept his spare wand in a place she didn't know about. Unfortunately, he did neither. Which led to little Louise sneaking out in the middle of the night with said wand clutched tightly in her hands. She went to the nearby forest and was met with a slight problem. She had never before even tried to cast a spell, which left her entirely clueless about what her next step should be. She decided to improvise. After all, what could possibly go wrong?

As it turned out, quite a lot.

Her incantation was completely flawed. Her wand did not make the right movements, but was swung wildly through the air. And when Louise finished... there was an explosion. She must have fainted at some point, as the only things she remembered were the endless darkness surrounding her and the bright light somewhere in the distance, which loomed ever closer as second after agonisingly slow second passed by.

And she woke up in a different place. A different country... And a different world.

* * *

The place she woke up in turned out to be close to castle called Redcliffe. Which was quite lucky on her part, she would later come to realize. Still, unlike the place she had used to try her summoning, this one laid among almost barren, rusty red mountains.

After getting over the initial shock of waking up in an unfamiliar setting and subsequent panicking, Louise had to move on. It was lucky her parents never bothered to tell her to stay in one place if she got lost, since she was rarely permitted to leave her family mansion without company. Because had she stayed in one place, she would have likely starved or frozen to death quite quickly. It still took her almost five days to reach a village close to the castle on top of one of the mointains, which she spied on her fourth day of travel.

When the thirst grew too strong, she had to drink water she found in small puddles on the ground. The water tasted horrible and made her sick to her stomach, but the thirst was just too strong. The pinkette didn't remember ever crying so much or calling for her parents as often as during these five days.

When she finally reached the small village nestled in the shadow of the impressive looking structure on the mountain, she was exhausted, starving and severely dehydrated. Her once pristine night dress made of finest silk was nothing more than a dirty rag at that point and her cute shoes had been dirtied beyond recognition by dust and grime. Her feet were raw and bleeding from the long walk, the shoes being made for looks more than functionality.

It was already getting dark when she stumbled towards the bridge that crossed a small stream of water. The people were mostly in their homes, preparing dinner and going about their usual business. Luckily a few people were still running some last errands outside, among them a young girl, around sixteen years old or so. Her name was Valena and she was the daughter of the local drunkard of a blacksmith.

She saw a small shape stumble and collapse powerlessly close to the river that eventually found it's way into Lake Calenhead, crawling pathetically towards the fast streaming water. Valena did the only thing any sane human would have done in her place and rushed to help the child. She quickly found out that the girl did not speak her language, but rather what appeared to be Orlesian to her ears. Still, her cracked lips, dirt smeared face and overall horrible condition spoke volumes and Valena quickly grabbed the already passed out Louise and brought her to her father, Owen.

The old smith was a little too fond of alcohol and as a rule was not a very pleasant person to be around, but he loved his daughter more than life itself and was not cruel enough to let a small child die on his watch. The following week Louise spent with the blacksmith's family, getting better and trying to communicate her noble status to these commoners. This endeavour was unsuccessful, as her fine clothing was beyond saving and was disposed of on the very first day and her Albionese was horrible. She was able to tell them her name and learned theirs in return, but that was about it.

Days turned into weeks and once Louise got better she attempted to go to the castle, only to be rebuffed by the guards. Owen, not having known about her little expedition until one of the knights brought Louise back by the scruff of her neck was obviously not amused. Louise was forced to work in the smith's shop doing the little insignificant chores Owen could not be bothered with. Her grasp on Albionese had improved enough in that time that she was at least able to understand what he wanted her to do as long as it wasn't anything requiring a lengthy explanation. Her initial refusal to do as she was told had her spanked quite soundly and after crying her eyes out in the corner she did not refuse a second time.

Weeks turned into months and as time passed she learned to talk better and better. About three months after her arrival she was finally able to tell Owen that she was a noble and wished to speak to the people in the castle that was visible from the village. The bearded man did not appear to believe her, but he did agree to take her there. With the old blacksmith being able to explain her situation, they eventually found themselves before Arl Eamon Guerrin of Redcliffe. He listened to Owen, when he explained Louise's plight and turned to the little girl when the blacksmith was finished.

He spoke a somewhat passable Tristanian, though he called it Orlesian for some reason and was able to coax some more information out of her. Most importantly, he learned that Louise ended up in Redcliffe as a result of a spell. It didn't take him long to send a messenger to the Circle of Magi about a little girl with a possible gift of magic. He also concluded that her family might be orlesian nobility who reside in the Tevinter Imperium, from Louise's description of how their society was ruled by mages. The words Tristain did not ring any bells with him and he paid it little mind, as she was still just a little girl. He did promise her to send word through his political contacts to try and find her family. Needless to say it was in vain in the end.

Soon an envoy from the Circle arrived. They put her through a number of tests to determine whether she was able to use magic or not. The results were positive and Louise had to say goodbye to the people she had grown to know and, though she wouldn't admit it at this point, was now rather fond of.

She was taken to the Circle of Magi, where the mages explained their rules to her. Louise once again cried.

Forsaking her noble title? Not leaving the Circle without permission of the First Enchanter? It all seemed so farfetched, so unreal to her, so unlike everything she expected her life to be. And yet, here she was. It would take her years to leave the tower, years in which she would begin doubting her own memories of growing up in a country called Tristania, where mages ruled over commoners. Because no matter how hard she studied magic, there never was even a sign of a spell capable to transport people any significant distance let alone to what appeared to be a different world.

Then there were the elves. There were none in Redcliffe village, so it was never a topic, but here in the Circle it was a different story altogether. They were numerous, not rivaling the humans in number, but still quite a lot. When Louise first saw one, all the stories she had heard back in Tristania floated up in her mind. She was frozen in fear and while she didn't display her emotions openly, she did her best to avoid them for the better part of five months, until one day she was assigned to study under one enchanter who just happened to be an elf. After a couple of weeks passed, without the elven mage eating, killing or maiming one of the children under his care, Luise started to relax in his presence and was forced to reevaluate her views on the sharp eared race. Eventually she even made a few elven friends around her age, finally conquering her irrational fear.

She had significant trouble learning spells from the primal school of magic, but was luckily rather gifted in the other three schools, so much so, that she was one of the youngest mages to ever go through the Harrowing. When she left the Circle with Duncan, she had just turned thirteen years of age. Even the experienced and hardened warrior who always said that he would use any resources available to him to fight the darkspawn was hesitant to take such a young girl with him. But in the end, because of her less than favourable situation within the Circle and with the templars, as well as her own insistence, he made his choice and invoked the right of conscription. With him she travelled to Highever to pick up a second viable recruit. Though the intended recruit died that night, they did leave with the Teyrn's son, who's family was betrayed by their allies.

Louise had for the first time taken another human's life that night and it wouldn't be the last.

The following year would stay with her for the rest of her life. In this seemingly not so significant amount of time, Louise would become a skilled mage, learn the secrets of the Arcane Warriors, fall in love only to be rebuffed by her object of affection called Alistair because of her young age, witness the fall of a legendary witch and partake in many battles for the sake of everyone endangered by the darkspawn blight.

But above all, she would survive the joining ritual and become a grey warden.

Led by the charismatic young noble from Highever, they would unite the unlikeliest of allies and together defeat the Archdemon, their leader dying in the process. Or at least that is what Louise assumed had happened. Because once the former noble's blade pierced the Archdemon's skin to deliver the lethal strike the pinkette once again found herself in the black void with the familiar bright light in the distance coming closer.

Before she knew it, she was once again in Halkegenia. Her grey warden armor, picked up and fixed by the dwarven smiths of Orzammar in the deep roads, was with her, as if to remind her that all of the past years have not been just a vivid dream. She no longer was the helpless little girl that appeared in the middle of nowhere and survived by sheer luck and therefore had no trouble finding the next best human settlement and figuring out her location. She was in Albion, and despite the brewing unrest with the newly formed Reconquista pushing for power, she had little trouble making it off the floating island and once again to Tristania.

It took a significant amount of self control and inventiveness to return to her family. Louise decided that a story of losing her memory and only recently regaining it was far more believable than the tale of her adventures in Thedas, a different world altogether.

She didn't know how much time was left to her, because the taint of the darkspawn was still as present inside her as ever, but she was determined to make the best of it. It was a slap in the face that she could not bear children because of the taint, but she would work her way around it and when her allotted time was up, she would have to take her own life for fear of turning into a ghoul. It wasn't hard to convince her parents that she was telling the truth. They were simply overjoyed to have their youngest daughter back, so much so that they didn't bother looking too deeply into it after they confirmed her identity by both questioning and magic.

Her weapons and armor were securely hidden in a nearby town and later brought to her chambers and stowed away in one of the many trunks. Louise, now fourteen years old, spent the rest of the year getting reacquainted with her family and Halkegenia in general. This presented a far more difficult challenge, since she couldn't afford to let people know that she was gone from this world for eight years, but she managed without slipping up too badly.

When she turned fifteen, though very much unwilling to let her go just a year after they found her again, her parents sent her to the Tristain academy of magic and the next year passed without an incident.

She had trouble with the halkegenian magic, since the schools she was good at didn't even exist in this world with only the primal schools being represented. And those had enough subtle differences to them that even the few spells she could perform back in Ferelden were hard to replicate without arousing suspicion. Louise was time and again tempted to cast the spells the way she was used to, but held herself back for fear of ending up in a mental institution or branded a heretic by the Brimiric Church.

The religion was another thing Louise struggled with. Since she spent the majority of her life in Thedas, she had all but forgotten about the local faith and was pretty much convinced that the Chant of Light was speaking the truth. Alas, she was now forced to re-evaluate her views. Slowly but surely the pink haired girl found herself doubting both, yet also believing them at the same time. Could it not be possible that both faiths had some truth to them and of course plenty of lies and over exaggerations as well? In the end she figured it didn't matter as long as she kept up appearances.

And thus, time went on. Louise's mother was attempting to secure a fiancée for her youngest daughter and the daughter in turn was pondering how to break to her mother that she would not be getting pregnant anytime soon and that her value as a bride was significantly reduced because of this.

They were small, casual problems compared to the ones Louise had grown used to dealing with in Ferelden. From time to time she would take out her armor from the trunk she brought with her to the academy, as if to reaffirm that it really did happen. And when nobody was around, she would sometimes take it with her outside, find a place she would not be disturbed at and practice.

Everything had fallen into a comfortable routine. And Louise was glad for it.

Until one night, in the beginning of her second year at the academy, Louise woke up covered in cold sweat. In her ears she could still hear the roar of the awakened old God that had been corrupted and turned into an archdemon.

A Blight was coming to Halkegenia. And Halkegenia was _NOT_ prepared.


	2. Chapter 2

Bare feet slapped across cold stone floor, sometimes interrupted by rugs that covered a good porion of the room.

Louise was restless. She knew that what she had just seen was not just a bad dream but grim and terrible fact. The darkspawn were here, in Halkegenia.

Where did they come from? How could they have already found an old God to corrupt? _What on earth was going on?!_

But none of these questions would be getting answered anytime soon. More importantly, what was _she_ going to do about it?

Now this was a question that would have to be answered right away. Louise stopped pacing and exhaled a deep ragged breath.

_In war, victory._

Was she going to just watch it all happen and do nothing? The mages here in Halkegenia, while not capable of using the full spectrum of magic, were still much more powerful and numerous than their counterparts in Thedas. Chances were, that they could repel the blight without too many casualties. Besides, she had fought her share. Wasn't she entitled to some peace and quiet? Hadn't she earned at least this much?

_In peace, vigilance._

But what about the archdemon? Only a grey warden was capable of taking an archdemon to the grave and even that at the cost of their own life.

_In death... Sacrifice._

Unbidden, the old grey warden motto fought its way to the fore of Louise's mind.

Her gaze travelled towards the window. A full moon was shining outside, casting eerie shadows across the courtyard below.

She had earned herself the right to peace? Watch as others fought and died in her stead? Had she really gotten this weak in the past two years, that she was willing to go this far?

_**No**_.

Louise Francoise was many things... but weak was not one of them. She had sworn an oath to protect others from the darkspawn until her dying breath. She had survived the joining ritual because she was willing to die to stop the horde in their tracks back in Ostagar. She had let the dying elven spirit teach her to become an Arcance Warrior so that others would not have to shield her with their bodies while she cast her spells in battle. Hide? Wait it out?

_Never._

Louise's eyes narrowed dangerously and her panicked breathing evened out. She was once again in familiar territory. She was at war. And now it was time to plan.

* * *

What could she do? What was her next step going to be?

She knew for a fact that she could not do this alone. Back in Ferelden she had friends, allies that she could rely on. Even Morrigan, irritating and annoying as she could be, was there when the dies were cast. The blight was not an unknown, and there were still other grey wardens in Orlais, should Ferelden have fallen. Here?..

She was alone. She knew next to nothing about the joining ritual, other than the ingredients required for it. And she would not be getting her hands on the blood of an archdemon anytime soon. There were no ancient treaties to fall back on either. She would have to convince people that a blight was coming, build an army, and kill the archdemon herself. But then what?

She would be dead, and she knew that the darkspawn would not just up and vanish. They would retreat and search for a different old God to corrupt. It may take them years, decades or even longer. But they would return. And then there would be no one there to stop them, unless someone would be crazy enough to try and find the right way to create more grey wardens.

The situation was grim. But thinking in long term was probably the most important thing. Louise would have to write down everything she knew of the joining ritual and try to recreate it. It was the only logical way to go about this. She would need research material. And darkspawn blood. Luckily she had both here at the academy. The library was vast and she still had seven vials of the dark liquid stored in the trunk. She was more than glad that she had not thrown them away and not left them in the camp on her last day in Thedas, by accident though it may have been.

In order to continue using the facilities here at the academy she would obviously have to continue attending classes. It would limit the time she could spend on the research, but the pros outweighed the cons.

She would also have to get back in touch with the princess of Tristania, Henrietta. Gaining her favor, trust and by extension her power and army would be essential in order to stop this blight from reaching unmanageable proportions. If she was lucky, Henrietta would also have enough political pull to convince other nations to help out.

On the upside, there were neither dwarves nor qunari in Halkegenia, which meant that the darkspawn ranks would be missing the genlocks and ogres from their ranks. Then again, there were plenty of other creatures here that did not exist in Thedas. Who was to say that the darkspawn could not turn something else into a broodmother to produce even more horrifying creatures than those Louise had to face two years ago?

Either way, there was one more important task she would have to do.

Make sure she didn't die before slaying the archdemon. And that meant getting back into fighting form.

Back in Thedas she was unprepared and survived her first few battles by sheer dumb luck. As she had gained experience and prowess in battle, she had found herself in less and less sticky situations and more in control of the fight. Now, however, she had spent two years living a peaceful life, only occasionally going out to practice her spells and blade weaving. This would have to change as well.

Just fighting her own shadow wouldn't do either. There was only so much one could learn and accomplish this way. She would need a sparring partner, preferably several to better imitate a real battlefield. But who? Louise knew that most of her classmates disregarded her as just another face they would see every day, present but not in any way connected to them or their affairs. The tall redhead had shown some interest initially, but as Louise wasn't interested in a rivalry which the other girl had tried to establish, the pinkette had done her best to keep her distance from her, with success.

She would also need a water mage to heal her, should she get injured during training and not be able to do it herself.

Louise stopped mid-thought. She knew just the person to go to. He was a pain in the neck do deal with, but him and his... acquaintance would fulfil her needs to a T. Now there was just the matter of getting the two to cooperate...

* * *

Guiche de Gramont was a self proclaimed ladies man. It was the beginning of his second year at the Tristain Academy of magic and one of the first years had caught his eye. Just as he was about to approach her and introduce himself, he was halted in his tracks by a small figure stepping in his path. The girl in front of him was almost one and a half heads shorter than him, had pink hair bound in a ponytail behind her head and wore a black robe, marking her as someone from his year. Ah, Louise de la Valliere, he remembered. The quiet girl from one of the most influential families in Tristania.

He had little interest in her, seeing as she was not really his type, but just ignoring her would be impolite, not to mention maybe even dangerous, depending on how serious a matter she wanted to talk about. Despite her pretty much non existing presence among their peers, Louise was still a Valliere and as such, wielded a good portion of power behind her name.

The cute first year would have to wait. There was plenty of time for that later.

Guiche plastered a polite smile on his face and gave his attention to the pink haired dwarf in front of him.

"Mademoiselle de la Valliere! A pleasure to see you on this fine day. What can I, Guiche of House Gramont do-"

"Spare me the formalities." She interrupted him. How rude...

"There is something I want you and your girlfriend to do." She continued. Girlfriend? Whom was she referring to? Ah, the lovely Montmorency, most likely.

"I realize that neither of you have a reason or obligation to help me, which is why I am willing to pay a generous amount to... bolster your spending money, if you will. I can also guarantee you that my proposition will in long term benefit the both of you." The small girl held out a small coin purse to him, which he subconsciously took. The weight was indeed remarkable, hinting at the handsome sum of money inside.

"Wha... Mademoiselle, before I agree to anything I would like to know more details about what you need our assistance with, not to mention I need to consult with the lovely lady Montmorency as well!" It was a tempting offer, Guiche had to admit. From the weight of the bag alone he could tell that the insides probably dwarfed his entire monthly allowance. More money, meant more to spend for pricy presents that girls seemed to be so fond of. But Louise giving it to him just like that probably meant that he could haggle out even more. Besides, the part about having to ask the blonde girl was true.

"I expected as much." The pinkette nodded with what appeared to be approval. "Please speak to Montmorency and find me in the library after classes. You can keep the money for now, and tell de Montmorency that should she agree, she will be getting just as much. When you show up, we can discuss the details of the agreement in private." She finished.

"Very well. Though I cannot guarantee our presence, I will try to make it." Guiche conceded. Louise nodded once again and briskly walked off, leaving Guiche alone again. Unfortunately the brown haired first year had already left his field of vision. Oh well. This sounded like easily made money, and as long as it was not illegal, the blonde boy saw no harm in humouring the pink haired girl. Besides, if this resulted in him getting a connection in the Valliere family, it would probably be even better than the bag of gold already in his hands.

* * *

Louise was pouring over a thick tome in the library for almost half an hour before the two blondes showed up. She was beginning to worry that she would have to look for help elsewhere. But her calculations were right after all, it seemed. Guiche was not from a wealthy family to begin with, by noble standards at least, and the House de Montmorency had lost much of its former wealth in the last years. Waving money in front of their noses was the right choice by the looks of it.

"Louise." Montmorency greeted her with a polite smile. It seemed Guiche had tipped her off about her dislike of lengthy titles and opening speeches.

"Montmorency, Guiche." Louise replied in kind with a nod of her head.

She pushed the tome aside and motioned for them to sit down across from her. They were in the section of the library close to the entrance, but luckily not many students frequented here to begin with, especially so after classes had just ended.

"Let us get down to business right away. But first I would like to confirm something. Guiche," She turned her gaze on the boy and with a little satisfaction noticed that he looked rather uncomfortable under her scrutiny. "Your runic name is the Bronze and your preferred fighting style involves summoning several mostly human sized golems to fight for you, correct?"

"Quite so, Mademoiselle." He nodded. She could see that her question threw him for a loop. He was probably expecting her to ask him something different.

"And Montmorency, you have some skill with healing spells, right?"

"Yes. That is true, though I will admit that I have little actual experience in healing injuries, I'm afraid." She admitted after a pause.

"Excellent." Louise nodded again. "Now, what I want you two to do is help me train in combat. Do not bother asking why, you will find out sooner or later, I suspect. I want your Golems to attack me," She pointed at the boy, swinging her finger from him to the girl in one fluid motion.

"And you to heal me, should I sustain a wound during our exercises. It goes without saying that I want to train not just once, but preferably daily, for at least an hour each time. For each training session you assist me with, each of you will be paid the same amount as the bag of coins I gave Guiche earlier today." Louise paused to let that sink in. Luckily, she had spent next to nothing during her year at the academy, which left her with a sizable sum of money she could throw in their faces. It was also nice that her family apparently thought that since she grew up as a commoner she had to catch up on all the nice things one could do as a noble, significantly increasing her allowance.

The eyes of the pair across from Louise were as large as dinner plates by that point, surprised by both the unusual request as well as the staggering amount of gold offered to them.

Montmorency was the first to regain her bearings. And also the first to jump at the opportunity.

"Agreed." She declared without even bothering to ask Guiche.

She extended her hand to Louise, which the pinkette promptly grasped in a firm handshake. Both of them turned to regard Guiche, who seemed to come out of a trance at this moment.

"Uh... very well. The offer seems fair enough." He conceded. Louise could tell that he probably wanted to haggle, but decided against it, as the offered amount already trumped anything he had in mind.

The pink haired girl smiled, her eyes once again narrowing and staring sharply at the two youths before her.

"Good. Meet me tomorrow evening at six at the entrance to the great hall. I know a place we will not be disturbed at. This way we should be back in time for dinner." She waited for them to give their agreement, before speaking again.

"Now, if you don't mind, I would like to continue my studies. Alone." She clarified when they didn't seem to get the hint.

She realized that by noble standards she was outright rude, but she simply didn't have the luxury of time to be polite and amicable anymore. Every second she wasted may cost her dearly in the events to come.

The two left with pursed lips, offended, but not willing to call her out on it for fear of losing the deal she had offered.

Once again alone, Louise reclaimed the old tome and got back to reading. The basics of alchemy were a hard read, but she understood the vast majority of it after rereading it once or twice. She still had a long way to go before she could even hope to attempt to replicate the joining ritual, but she had to start somewhere. Determined, she pulled out a notebook and resumed her reading, scrawling onto the pages from time to time.

* * *

All too soon the evening of the next day came and in the dimming light Louise and her two companions found themselves making their way to the stables.

"On horseback we will need half an hour at most to get there." Louise explained. "It's a small flat place next to the hill north-east from the academy. There is a natural rock formation surrounding it, so it is unlikely that we will be seen. Even if we are seen, however, it wouldn't matter much. I am only trying to keep this under wraps so that we remain undisturbed during our sessions."

She was hauling a heavy looking backpack with her, along with a rather long object wrapped in cloth. Montmorency was eyeing it curiously but so far had refrained from asking any questions.

Once they reached the stables and Louise secured her load onto the horse, they were off.

A short time later they found themselves inside the circle of rocks the pink haired girl had told them about. They dismounted and Louise instructed the pair to put up torches or magical lights around them seeing as it was rapidly getting dark.

While they were at it, the grey warden started gearing up for the training to come.

Guiche was the first to notice it. While he was not an expert in terms of armor and weapons, he knew a good set when he saw one. He spent some time watching as Louise proceeded to strap on the various pieces of equipment onto herself, fastening the leather straps to make sure every part was in place and would not fall off, leaving her vulnerable. By the time Louise pulled out the two parts of the breastplate, Guiche was simply amazed.

That part alone should have weighed more than someone of Louise's bodily proportions should be able to wear, let alone lift up and carry around together with the other pieces in the backpack. Maybe it was tin? But making armor out of tin was nonsense.

The design of the set of armor was simple, but functional. The only engraving present on it was a bold crest on the breastplate, depicting two gryphons back to back to each other. The rest was a mix between plate mail, scale mail and studded leather.

By the time Louise pulled out the heavy looking boots, also covered in plate, Guiche was well beyond amazed at how she was even able to move around with so much weight on her. She didn't even appear to notice it!

Montmorency had finished illuminating the area in the meantime and had joined Guiche in the staring.

Finally Louise seemed finished, and after putting her helmet under her arm made her way towards the two onlookers.

Before she could start talking however, she found Guiche poking at her breastplate. While safely protected by the steel, it was still the place where her admittedly small breasts were located. Louise developed a slight tick in her left eye, and by the looks of it Montmorency was less than pleased with his actions as well.

"And what pray tell are you doing?" The pinkette asked in a deceptively sweet voice.

"It really is steel." Guiche muttered under his breath, oblivious to the glares directed at him. Montmorency coughed into her fist and glared harder. The boy seemed to get the hint and backed off.

"Now." Louise began. "Summon three of your golems for starters. Blunted weapons, swords and maces only for now. I want you to start directing them slowly, speeding up as I tell you to. Montmorency, stay a safe distance away please."

Guiche nodded and followed the other blonde until they were on the outer perimeter of the circle of stones. He then hesitantly pulled out a rose, which simultaneously doubled as his wand. Louise put on her helmet.

While small in size, she was now a somewhat intimidating form to behold. The helmet hid the rest of her face from view and only through the narrow slit one could see her eyes, narrowed and determined.

Guiche swung the rose and three petals floated to the ground. When they touched down, three bronze golems emerged in their place. Their sleek form and stylized armor spoke of the effort he had put into designing them.

Louise unsheathed her weapon.

The Spellweaver was a powerful weapon by itself, allowing its user to cast spells trough it much like a wand would. It didn't allow some of the more powerful spells to be cast this way though. Another downside was its size. A tall warrior could wield the sword with one hand, but for someone of Louise's complexion, the sword turned into a two-handed weapon and that in turn made casting spells mid-fight even more difficult than it already was. Which was why Louise was trying to look into the wandswords that were popular among the mageknights of Tristania. So far she had little success.

As instructed, Guiche's golems were starting out slow. Louise had little trouble dancing around their clumsy attacks, even when they came at her at the same time.

After five minutes of dodging blow after blow, she told Guiche to speed things up. Immediately the dodging became harder and the armored girl found herself forced to parry more and more attacks with her blade.

Regardless, she ordered Guiche to up his game again. This went well for all of a minute until one of the animated armors got behind her, delivering a heavy blow with its mace straight to Louise's head.

* * *

When the pink haired girl opened her eyes again, she found herself staring at the dark sky with two panicking blonds at her side.

"...thought she was going to dodge it! She saw everything else i threw at her until now, how was I supposed to know she was at her limit?!"

"You should have stopped it from moving when you saw the mace almost reach her!"

"Shut up, please." Louise groaned. That blow was nowhere near as fast or even well executed as the ones she dodged with ease back in Ferelden. This frustrated her even more than the splitting headache she was experiencing at this very moment.

"You're awake!" Montmorency sounded sincerely relieved.

"Yes." Louise could now feel that her head was actually resting on the female blonde's lap while the freckled girl was casting some sort of healing spell on her scalp. With another groan the grey warden lifted herself up into a sitting position and tried to establish what kind of damage had been done to her.

Her hair was clean and not bloodied, which meant that the helmet did its job well enough.

"Montmorency, do not bother berating Guiche for this. It wasn't his mistake, it was mine. Also, I knew something like this was bound to happen, which is why I brought you along. This is what I wanted, nothing more and nothing less. Sometimes you can only learn something by having it beaten into you. I will not let this happen again." Louise stood up and looked around.

"How long was I unconscious?"

"Only about five minutes, mademoiselle." Guiche replied. "And allow me to apologize to you. While injuries are to be expected when training for combat, it was still not my intention to hurt you." He actually looked sincere when he said that.

Louise nodded.

"Apology accepted, if it is that important to you. Now. Let's continue. Where did you two put my helmet?" She looked around, but couldn't locate said item in the immediate vicinity.

"Continue?! Are you out of your mind?!" Montmorency sounded rather put off by the idea, Louise noted.

"I am not. We still have more than half an hour left before we need to head back and I intend to make full use of every remaining minute." Louise actually grinned a little. Their faces looked a little like those she would expect to find on a fish.

Guiche was the first to regain his composure and also the first to be infected by her grin.

"Mademoiselle, you are just full of surprises." He joked.

"You don't even know the half of it." Louise replied in kind.

Her helmet was found soon after and the training resumed.

They would have questions for her. Questions she was not ready to answer yet. And she still had a long way to go before regaining her skill in battle. But it was a good first step.

As long as she was moving forward, Louise decided that she would be fine.


End file.
